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Stewart Lee In John Cage's Indeterminacy
John Doran , December 12th, 2017 13:29

Show this week at Charing Cross branch of Foyles...

Comic, writer and tQ contributor Stewart Lee is appearing in a performance of John Cage's Indeterminacy on Thursday night at Foyles in Charing Cross, London.

The performance features Stewart Lee reading, Tania Chen and Steve Beresford on objects with Alan Tomlinson on trombone.

The performance will be followed by a Q&A with the performers and author, David Toop.

Describing the event, a spokesperson for the venerable London independent shop said: "Once upon a time, Steve Beresford played Tania Chen the Folkways CD of Indeterminacy, by John Cage and David Tudor. On it, Cage told ninety stories, each one minute long, and, in another room and unable to hear Cage, Tudor played the piano and tapes - originally released on two LPs in 1959.

"Tania liked the recording very much and immediately suggested performing the piece. Steve suggested Stewart Lee to read the stories. Stewart agreed.

The three of them have now performed the piece - trimmed to thirty or forty stories, randomly selected - many times. In their version, everyone can hear each other."

Stewart Lee talked to David Stubbs about Indeterminacy for this site back in 2012.

More details can be found here